The Ottawa Senators will have to continue to play the waiting game to find out what’s going to happen with the two most important dates on their calendar this summer.

While the draft lottery was scheduled for April 9 and the actual event was supposed to be held June 26-27 at the Bell Centre in Montreal, the pause in the NHL season because of the novel coronavirus that started exactly 71 days ago on March 12 has put everything on hold, including one of the most important off-seasons in the history of the franchise.

The hope was the NHL’s board of governors would decide in their bi-weekly call Monday one way or another what would happen with the lottery and the draft, but they put off the decision on whether they’ll accept commissioner Gary Bettman and deputy commissioner Bill Daly’s proposal to hold both events virtually next month before the season is completed.

Daly indicated in an email to this newspaper Wednesday the league is on the verge of making a decision, but people just have to be patient because the draft isn’t the only issue the NHL is dealing with as it tries to come up with plan to try to complete its season.

“This week or next week is probably fair,” Daly wrote when asked about a possible determination. “I can’t tell you there’s a precise timetable because there are other things involved.”

Though the league was never considering holding the lottery and the draft together, it would appear they’re considering a couple of months between events instead of just two or three weeks. Speaking in an interview on Toronto radio on the weekend, Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk suggested the league might hold the lottery in June and the draft later in the summer.

“I just hope we can have some events in June to keep people interested,” Melnyk told the Fan590 from his home in Barbados on Sunday. “If that’s just the draft lottery, that would be great. If that’s the draft and the draft lottery, that’s even better.”

Daly indicated every option is on the table at the moment and longtime broadcaster John Shannon has suggested a lottery next month with the draft set for August.

“Yes, still a number of scenarios being considered,” Daly wrote.

The NHL is juggling a lot of balls and we’re not even talking about where the lottery is concerned. The Return to Play committee, which includes Toronto’s John Tavares, Edmonton’s Connor McDavid and Ottawa’s Ron Hainsey, has been meeting regularly to discuss what format the league will take to try to award a Stanley Cup, and the road to a resolution hasn’t been easy.

Under the 24-team tournament scenario being discussed, the Senators, Detroit Red Wings, San Jose Sharks, Los Angeles Kings, New Jersey Devils, Anaheim Ducks and Buffalo Sabres wouldn’t play again this season.

Melnyk and Senators general manager Pierre Dorion had no issue with the draft and the lottery being held next month. However, there was pushback from many of their counterparts across the league about the draft being held before the regular season has been completed because many felt it would put a damper on their ability to make deals by moving contracts for selections.

On a conference call last month, the governors also expressed — many on behalf of their GMs — the proposed format of the lottery. No, they don’t mind winning percentage at the pause being used to determine the order, but several teams in the playoff picture expressed concern that under a format proposed by the league they wouldn’t have the slightest chance of winning the lottery.

The NHL proposed a change to holding a 15-team lottery under the old system that doesn’t allow a team to fall back more than one spot. Teams like the defending champion St. Louis Blues want to at least have a sniff at moving up in the order so they want to be in the playoffs and have a shot in the lottery. At this point, it would appear the system currently used by the league will remain in place.

This draft is important to the Senators because they’ve got three picks in first round, including their own, the ones they picked up from the San Jose Sharks in the Erik Karlsson deal and the New York Islanders in the Jean-Gabriel Pageau trade. If that’s not enough, they’ve got seven in the first two rounds and 13 overall as the rebuild enters a pivotal phase.

The Senators are confident they’re going to get some high-end talent in this draft, and they have every right to be. They’d just like to know when the lottery and the draft are going to be held because they’re ready, willing and able to get to the table.

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